metaphysical poets

metaphysical poets,

name given to a group of English lyric poets of the 17th cent. The term was first used by Samuel Johnson (1744). The hallmark of their poetry is the metaphysical conceit (a figure of speech that employs unusual and paradoxical images), a reliance on intellectual wit, learned imagery, and subtle argument. Although this method was by no means new, these men infused new life into English poetry by the freshness and originality of their approach. The most important metaphysical poets are John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Thomas Traherne, Abraham Cowley, Richard Crashaw, and Andrew Marvell. Their work has considerably influenced the poetry of the 20th cent.

5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Way back in the 17th century, John Donne, English attorney, cleric and preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets, wrote: "Sleep is pain's easiest salve, as doth fulfill all offices of death, except to kill.

The collection includes several challenges and responses to religious feeling written in a contemporary voice but with a tone familiar to those who read the Metaphysical poets of the seventeenth century (although McHugh often quotes Dante).

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